Odisha govt action against 613 ‘missing’ doctors a farce: OMSA

Reacting to the announcement by the state government that it would take action against 613 doctors, who have either not joined their duty or have left their job without notice, the Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA) on Tuesday said the notice served by the government on these doctors is a ‘farce’.

“While not even one percent of these 613 doctors, the list of which have been published by the state government, is now serving under the Health and Family Welfare department, the state government claims that it has appointed about 3800 doctors to provide health services to 4.20 crore people of the state. Not only this, due to the false list of doctors, there is no further recruitment of doctors in the state,” said OMSA general secretary Dr Kishore Chandra Mishra in a release here.

He also claimed that the list of doctors prepared by the state government does not pertain to one or two years. It has the names of doctors who had joined since 1981. While some of the doctors have not resigned, the concerned files of those who have resigned are with the senior officials of the Health department.

“It is doubtful if even 6-7 out of the 613 doctors named are working under the Health department,” Mishra said. He said the remaining doctors in the meanwhile have left their government job and are working either in private hospitals or private medical colleges and hospitals in the state or outside the state with a better pay package.

He also said as the list contains names of those appointed as far back as 1981, some of the doctors must have superannuated in the meanwhile.

“The state government, which had refuted the claims of OMSA that there is acute shortage of doctors in the state, has finally admitted 613 vacant posts of doctors with the announcement of this list,” Mishra pointed out.

He said while the state government talks about 613 vacant posts of doctors, there are several doctors who have remained absent.

“OMSA has a list of 300 doctors who are said to be on duty under the Health department, but are actually not working for the government. Besides, another 300 doctors, who have been recently transferred, are now on leave while more than 200 doctors are working in several government and private medical colleges and hospitals in the state. Taking the total number of doctors, there are roughly 2000-2200 doctors in the state though the state government has put the number at 3800 and accordingly provided wrong information to the State Assembly,” Mishra asserted.

He said due to false and misleading information, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has neither been able to get a clear picture on the actual number of doctors working in the state nor has it been able to recruit more doctors.

“While around 700-800 doctors have applied for jobs, OPSC is able to recruit about 200 doctors as a result of which the shortage of doctors in the state continues as before,” he noted.